Canary Islands, the community where temporary disability grows the most in recent years

Temporary incapacity (TI) continues to grow in all autonomous communities, although Canary Islands is the region where it has grown the most with respect to 2018, up to 64%, according to data published by Umivale Activa and the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie).

According to the study, long-term absences are the main factor in this increase, while mental health has become one of the pathologies whose weight has increased the most since 2018.

This is reflected in a series of fact sheets with regional information on temporary incapacity (TI) processes in each of the autonomous communities corresponding to 2024, which show that in 2024 the percentage of potential working days lost stood at 5.94% on average nationally.

The national increase in TI stood at 44% and, by region, the smallest increase of 31% was recorded in the Balearic Islands, while Canary Islands and Galicia experienced the largest increase of 64%, compared to 2018.

In all communities, the repetition of processes, long-term absences, and pathologies that are difficult to objectify, such as algias and mental health, are increasing. These two pathologies account for half of the temporary incapacity indicator.

Their combined weight exceeds 55% in the Canary Islands, Asturias, Galicia, Catalonia, and the Basque Country; in the Canary Islands, they represent 57% of the indicator, in Asturias 56.6%, in Galicia 56.2%, and in the Basque Country and Catalonia 55.5%.

Mental health is the category that is growing the most, and its contribution to the TI indicator increases by up to 130% in some communities. Navarra and Catalonia lead the incidence per thousand workers, followed by the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands; however, the Canary Islands and Galicia register a higher indicator of TI absences with lower incidence.

The comparison confirms that the frequency of entry into TI is not enough to explain lost working days, but rather the duration of the processes plays an important role, the study points out. In terms of prevalence, the Canary Islands, Galicia, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Murcia, and Asturias show the highest prevalences at the end of the year, while Madrid, the Balearic Islands, and La Rioja are below the average.

Long-term absences

In practically all communities, absences of more than one year represent only between 3% and 6% of the processes, but they account for approximately between a quarter and a third of all lost working days and explain around 35%-40% of the growth in TI absences since 2018.

The long duration, on the other hand, is the factor that best distinguishes communities with the greatest impact on their temporary disability rates. The Canary Islands and Galicia combine high levels of lost days, general prevalence, and prevalence of processes lasting more than 365 days.

Also, short-term absences (less than 3 days) have increased considerably in all communities, from Castilla-La Mancha, with a 152% increase, to Navarra with 63.5%.

The group of workers who have repeat absences ranges between 8% and 24% depending on the community, but accounts for 50% to 78% of the processes and between 47% and 73% of the lost days. The communities with a more intense pattern of repetition are Navarra, Catalonia, and the Basque Country, and, at the other extreme, Extremadura registers the lowest value.

Of the total number of processes lasting more than one year that have concluded, the percentage of absences ending in permanent disability has decreased compared to 2018 in all communities. Cantabria presents the highest proportion of processes of more than 365 days that concluded with the approval of permanent disability, and Catalonia and Andalusia are also above the Spanish average, while Navarra registers the lowest value, followed by Asturias, Aragón, and Castilla y León.